The Weekly Groove

When you install Service Pack 1 (SP1) of Office 2010, SharePoint Workspace 2010 is installed -- UPDATE

Frances Se - MSFT — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 19:43:00 GMT

(9/13/2011: Updated to add KB link)

Update, March 28, 2012: There is now an update available for this issue. Note that you must apply the update before applying SP1.

When you install Service Pack 1 (SP1) of Office 2010 over Office Professional Plus, SharePoint Workspace 2010 is installed automatically, even if it was not selected as part of the originally Office 2010 installation. SP1 provides an Add-In tool API for creating custom tools for Groove workspaces. Due to a bug in the SP1 installation process, the addition of this API and related functionality in Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO), triggers an installation of SharePoint Workspace if it is not already present, rather than just upgrading it if it is present.

This isn’t much of a problem for individual users who do not have Office Groove 2007 installed – they can just remove the component. However, it is more of an issue for two types of customers:

Enterprise installations that want to maintain a standardized environment

The added component may not be initially obvious, as the installation does not add program shortcuts to SharePoint Workspace anywhere. However, the executable files and all supporting libraries are installed and registered, so if a user manually runs \Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14\Groove.exe, SharePoint Workspace will start. More obviously, the user will see “Sync to SharePoint Workspace” in the Site Actions menu of SharePoint 2010 sites that support workspaces.
Any user with Groove 2007 installed

The SharePoint Workspace 2010 installation will upgrade Groove 2007, and there is no reliable way to regress to Groove 2007 from SharePoint Workspace 2010.

We are aware of the issue and working to get it resolved.

If you have not yet installed SP1

If you fall into one of the categories listed above, do not install SP1 directly. Instead, download the SP1 package, and then open a Support incident with Microsoft and request escalation to the SharePoint Workspace Support team. The Office Deployment team wrote a script to correct the downloadable SP1 package, and we can provide you with this script and instructions. Reference KB 2612800: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2612800

Install the update described at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2598245

If you have already installed SP1

If you have already installed the update and do not want to use SharePoint Workspace, simply uninstall the component.

If you have already installed the update over Groove 2007, there is no supported way to downgrade to that version. However, you may be able to recover. See What to consider when you upgrade from Groove 2007 to SharePoint Workspace 2010 for more information.

Higher limits, fixes, and extras: updates you should know about

Frances Se - MSFT — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 02:43:00 GMT

I am delighted to announce the release of three updates significant to SharePoint Workspace customers:

Office 2010 Service Pack 1 (SP1)
An SDK for SharePoint Workspace 2010
The June Cumulative Update (CU) for Office 2010

These updates provide significant fixes and enhancements that you have been asking for. Here are the details, by package.

SP1 for Office 2010

Office 2010 Service Pack 1 (SP1) provides the following fixes and enhancements for SharePoint Workspace:

Extensions to the document download limit

Prior to SP1, SharePoint Workspace restricted its use of the Office Document Cache (ODC) to keep the cache at or below 1800 files, and would begin to warn the user about the impending limit at 500 files. SP1 increases the overall limit to 10,000 files. In addition, SharePoint Workspace SP1 displays ODC usage in an easy-to-read meter viewable at the time of workspace creation and from the File tab, providing relevant information to the user less intrusively than the pop-up warning.

Add-In tool API

SP1 provides an Add-In tool API for creating custom tools for Groove workspaces. The SDK for this API is available in a separate download. Note that these add-in tools can be used only in 2010 Groove workspaces. The new API does not provide programmatic access to SharePoint workspaces, Shared Folders, or the general application UI.

For more information on Office 2010 SP1, see this article -- Description of Office 2010 SP1

SDK for add-in tools

The Software Development Kit (SDK) for SharePoint Workspace helps developers create add-in tools for Groove workspaces in SharePoint Workspace 2010, SP1.

Download the SDK from http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=26642.

See the documentation at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-US;2553023.

The June Cumulative Update (CU) for Office 2010

The June CU contains fixes completed too recently to get into the service pack release. It resolves the following SharePoint Workspace issues:

When multiple SharePoint Files tools in a Groove workspace are set to synchronize automatically, synchronization may fail and remain inoperable.
If you have "/" or "\" characters in an account name, the Active Directory auto-configuration or Outlook auto-configuration fails.
Windows Firewall exception query returns an error if exception is not a local policy.

For more information on the Office 2010 June CU, see this article -- Office 2010 Cumulative Update for June 2011

We recommend applying SP1 and then the June CU.

Spurious firewall error at SharePoint Workspace startup

Frances Se - MSFT — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 21:01:00 GMT

Update, July 5, 2011: This issue is fixed in the the Office 2010 June CU for SharePoint Workspace. See this article for details: Office 2010 Cumulative Update for June 2011

Firewall error at startup - again

Some of our customers in more security-conscious domains have been noticing an issue with the SharePoint Workspace firewall exception check. At every startup, many users are getting a warning message that starts like this:

SharePoint Workspace is unable to communicate through your firewall and will run with limited functionality. To resolve this problem, enable SharePoint Workspace as a Windows Firewall exception...

(How it continues from there depends on your configuration.)

However, despite this message, SharePoint Workspace works through the firewall.

Why does this happen?

We want to warn the user if SharePoint Workspace is blocked by Windows Firewall, so when the program starts up, it makes the following checks:

Is Windows Firewall enabled?
If so, is there an exception for SharePoint Workspace in the local firewall policy?

If Windows Firewall is enabled and SharePoint Workspace doesn't have an exception in the local firewall policy, it returns an error to warn the user that program functionality may be limited.

But it works!

SharePoint Workspace only checks the local policies. Many organizations - especially ones that maintain tight security - manage firewall exceptions at the IT level and distribute them via domain policy. If you have a domain policy that pushes a Windows Firewall exception for SharePoint Workspace to domain members, the startup check will not see it. However that exception will work, allowing SharePoint Workspace to communicate through the Windows Firewall.

How do I stop it?

Although program functionality is not affected, this message still worries end users, and by requiring a user acknowledgment, it delays program startup. We recognize that this is a problem for many customers. For the moment, the best workaround is to duplicate the domain firewall exception to the local policy branch.

Groove Relay at Microsoft restarted

Frances Se - MSFT — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 16:34:26 GMT

We recently discovered that one of the Groove Relay servers managed by Microsoft was having connection problems. The issue has been resolved and the server restarted. If you are experiencing connection or presence issues in SharePoint Workspace or Groove, and your assigned Relay is blugro2, please exit the program and then restart it.

To determine if you use blugro2, follow these steps:

On the File tab, click Info, Click Connection Settings, and then click Communications Manager.
In Communications Manager, click Network Settings.
In Advanced Network Settings, under the Network Diagnostics tab, click to expand Home Relay devices. You may have multiple devices.
If you see the hostname blugro2relay.groove.microsoft.com, you use blugro2 as a relay.

Not all accounts on blugro2 were affected. If your account uses blugro2, and you believe you may be experiencing presence or synchronization issues, stop and restart Groove or SharePoint Workspace.

SharePoint Workspace 2010 crashes on some systems that were upgraded from Office 2003 or earlier

Frances Se - MSFT — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 14:44:00 GMT

by Joe Levine and Patrick Gan
(edited by Frances S., 4/13/11)

SharePoint Workspace 2010 might crash on startup or during account configuration under the following circumstances:

You upgraded to Office 2010 from Office 2003 or an earlier version of Office.
Your operating system is Windows XP SP3.
Your computer is NOT a tablet system.

The cause of the problem has to do with an incompatibility with Handwriting Recognition software that was installed with an earlier version of Office, and that might still reside on your system even after uninstalling the earlier version.

To resolve this issue, you can uninstall the Handwriting Recognition software as follows:

Click Start and then click Control Panel.
Click Regional and Language Options.
Click the Languages tab.
Click the Details button to open the Text Services and Input Languages dialog box.
Click Handwriting Recognition.
Click Remove, and then click OK.

Depending on the state of the system, you may need to reboot to complete the change.

Synchronizing to SharePoint in SharePoint Workspace 2010

Frances Se - MSFT — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 19:47:00 GMT

SharePoint sync is the new focus of the product, and here in Support, we get a lot of questions about how it works. What kinds of data can be synchronized? How much data? What SharePoint versions are supported? Does the product still use Groove servers? In this article, I review some of the common points of confusion.

Your options

SharePoint Workspace 2010 has two ways to synchronize content with SharePoint sites:

A SharePoint workspace can take many types of site content offline, but only from Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 or SharePoint Foundation 2010. When the SharePoint Online servers are upgraded to 2010 technology, you will also be able to use a SharePoint workspace for SharePoint Online sites.
A SharePoint Files tool in a Groove workspace (formerly called a "Standard workspace") will synch to either a 2007 or 2010 server, but can only take a single document library offline. To use the SharePoint Files tool, you must choose the option to create a 2007-version Groove workspace. The SharePoint Files tool is unchanged since Office Groove 2007.

Note: When reading the help or other product documentation, remember that "a SharePoint workspace" is only one of the workspace types included in "SharePoint Workspace". If you are not aware of the difference, some information may appear contradictory.

So which should you use? If possible, use a SharePoint workspace. SharePoint workspaces work with SharePoint 2010 technology to gain better integration than the old SharePoint Files tool can. They use the same storage and transport services as most other Office 2010 applications that can work with files stored on a SharePoint site. (The odd one is this case is OneNote, which has its own mechanism for storing file data synchronized with SharePoint.) These services provide load-balancing and transport optimization, making synchronization more efficient than in the SharePoint Files tool. In most cases, you will have a better experience with a SharePoint workspace.

There are really only two situations in which you might want to use the old SharePoint Files tool:

If you need to share SharePoint files with someone who does not have access to the SharePoint site.
If you need to synchronize files with a document library on a 2007 SharePoint Server.

Content types

A SharePoint workspace can sync almost anything that it can store in a Documents tool or a Lists tool. These means most SharePoint lists and libraries are supported, although some heavily customized lists may have problems.

The following content types cannot currently be synchronized by a SharePoint workspace:

Calendar/Events lists
Wikis
Blog sites
Portal sites
Form libraries
Slide libraries
Surveys
Site directories
OneNote notebooks stored in document libraries (because OneNote uses its own storage method)
IRM-protected document libraries (individually protected files are okay, within constraints)
Anything other than lists and libraries

Anything else should work, although there are some special requirements for external lists.

To prevent confusion and aid in accessibility, lists and libraries that SharePoint Workspace cannot synchronize (or that you choose not to synchronize) are still listed in the workspace. In the default view, they are displayed under the heading Available on Server. When you highlight an entry for unsynchronized content, the SharePoint workspace provides a link to open the list or library in a browser. If the content type is supported, you will also have an option to connect the entry to the list or library.

Getting started

You can create a SharePoint workspace from the Launchbar, but it's often easier to do it from the SharePoint site itself. When you are viewing the site in the browser, open the Site Actions menu, and choose Sync to SharePoint Workspace. You can use Configure to adjust the content downloaded, or just leave it at the default.

Troubleshooting workspace creation

If you don't see Sync to SharePoint Workspace in the Site Actions menu, then either the SharePoint server is not at 2010, or the SharePoint administrator has disabled Workspaces. In the latter case, you may also find that you don't have options such as "Edit in Word" for a Word document.

If you see Sync to SharePoint Workspace, but when you try to use it, SharePoint Workspace reports that it can't contact the server (the one you are viewing in your browser!), then the SharePoint administrator has probably disabled FSSHTTP (File Synchronization via SOAP over HTTP), which SharePoint Workspace requires to synchronize file data. Other Office applications that use Workspaces use this protocol as well, but will usually fall back to Web-DAV if FSSHTTP is not available. SharePoint workspaces require FSSHTTP to support a rich client experience for SharePoint.

Warnings about the number of synchronized items

SharePoint Workspaces, like several other office applications, uses the Office Document Cache (ODC) to store files taken offline from SharePoint. When the Office Document Cache (not a particular workspace) exceeds 500 files, SharePoint Workspace will warn you about the cache size at startup. When the cache exceeds 1800 files, or when a particular operation - whether that is taking a new site offline or fetching a single new file - would take you over the 1800 file limit, SharePoint Workspace will display a warning and switch to downloading headers only for any new content taken offline.

Finding files stored in SharePoint workspaces

Note that although SharePoint Workspace uses the ODC, files in SharePoint workspaces are not visible in the Upload Center. However, files in SharePoint workspaces and 2010 Groove workspaces are easier to find than ever before!

By searching:

You can use Windows Search -- either from Windows or within SharePoint Workspace -- to search the following content:

Files stored in the Documents tool (including SharePoint workspace document libraries)
Items in the Lists tool (including SharePoint workspace lists, the 2010 Discussion tool, and other Lists-based tools)
Items in the Calendar tool
Entries in the Notepad tool
Messages in the Message History

By browsing:

If you are running Windows Vista or Windows 7, you can access files in the Documents tool (including SharePoint workspace document libraries) via the Workspaces folder in your personal folder.

Note that 2007 Groove workspaces are not accessible using these methods, so if you have a workspace created with a previous version of Groove, or you set the Workspace Version option to 2007 when creating a new Groove workspace, content in that workspace will not show up in a Windows search, and the workspace will not be listed in your Workspaces folder.

Groove servers

So does SharePoint Workspace 2010 use Groove servers? That depends on what product features you use. Groove servers are not used by SharePoint workspaces. Beyond that, the subject probably deserves its own post.

That's all for today! Is there some SharePoint Workspace feature or change you'd like to see covered here? Leave a comment to let me know.

Single sign-on in SharePoint Workspace 2010

Frances Se - MSFT — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 20:10:00 GMT

Hello everyone! Now that the Office 2010 release is near, I'm planning to start a series of articles on changes in the product from Microsoft Office Groove 2007. This article is about single sign-on authentication -- first some general information, and then what you should know if you administer managed Groove accounts.

SharePoint Workspace 2010, supports single sign-on authentication. Groove 2007 and previous Groove products required a password at startup, and you either had to provide this password each time, or configure Groove to remember it and risk forgetting it yourself. Now, SharePoint Workspace will link your SharePoint Workspace account to your Windows login, and once you are logged into Windows, you will be able to start up SharePoint Workspace without being prompted for a password.

A brief note on security

So, what is the effect on security? Surprisingly positive! I'm not going to cover that in detail, as Paul Cannon and Leon Alexandrou have a great post on it here: http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint_workspace_development_team/archive/2010/02/18/sharepoint-workspace-and-single-sign-on.aspx. One point they don't cover is the rise of malware that harvests passwords as the user types them. As that sort of thing has become more common, the risks associated with individual application authentication prompts have increased. Also, be aware that your account still has a password internally -- it just happens to be a very long one that Windows provides for you. If someone took all the Groove data files off your computer and moved them to all the right places on their own computer, they would not gain access to the data by installing Groove over it. See the linked post for more information.

Behavior at First launch

Obviously, with single sign-on, there's not a lot to see. If SharePoint Workspace 2010 is a new installation, then the first time you start SharePoint Workspace, you are be prompted to create or install an account, as before, but that account creation process is a little shorter, because you are not prompted to set a password. When the account is created, SharePoint Workspace generates an internal password that is accessed through your Windows account, after you log into Windows. It will use that password behind the scenes when you start SharePoint Workspace.

If you are upgrading from Groove 2007, this is a little different. The first time you start SharePoint Workspace, you will be prompted for your Groove 2007 account password. If you do not remember it, you will be prompted to reset your password. Once you have provided the password, or the reset has completed successfully, SharePoint Workspace converts your account to use single sign-on.

Importing your account

If you subsequently import your account on another computer, SharePoint Workspace will display a password prompt. If you upgraded from Groove 2007 and remember your 2007 password, you can enter it here. Otherwise, click Reset Password and follow the instructions in the confirmation email you receive. Again, your account on this computer will be linked to the current Windows account.

Single sign-on with domain management

In an unmanaged environment, single sign-on links the SharePoint Workspace account to the active user's local Windows account. However, it is possible for an administrator to configure Groove Manager and Active Directory so that a SharePoint Workspace account is linked to the active user's domain account instead.

Configuration

Configuring the servers

Here are the basic steps administrators must take to integrate single sign-on with domain accounts.

Install Groove Server Manager 2010. In Directory Configuration, opt to connect to an Active Directory server, and provide the name of the Active Directory Forest.
Configure Active Directory for integration with SharePoint Workspace provisioning by adding the schema extension for use in the Active Directory Users and Computers (ADUC) tool. (For details, see http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee681773(office.14).aspx.)
Enable automatic account configuration by creating a Group Policy Object (GPO) that assigns domain members to the Groove Manager. (For details, see http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee681783(office.14).aspx.)

After you have completed this configuration, qualified users who install SharePoint Workspace will have SharePoint Workspace accounts linked to domain accounts instead of to local Windows accounts.

Requirements on the desktop

To benefit from the above configuration, the following conditions must be met on the computer that will run SharePoint Workspace:

The computer is joined to a domain that is in the Active Directory Forest that the Groove Manager is integrated with.
The person who will use SharePoint Workspace logs in to the computer using a domain account that has the GPO designating a Groove Manager.
The person who will use SharePoint Workspace is the person who starts SharePoint Workspace for the first time. (If SharePoint Workspace is installed by someone other than the person who will use it, the installer must not start the application after the installation completes.)

When the user launches SharePoint Workspace for the first time, SharePoint Workspace will contact the assigned Groove Manager and fetch the user's account.

Error -- “Unable to register with Relay Server”

Frances Se - MSFT — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 15:00:00 GMT

by Gregg Johnston

Scenario

You have just set up your Groove server environment, and it looks good. You have your Groove Manager server running and a connection to SQL server. Groove Relay is all fired up and has been added to the Groove domain. Users have been added too, and you are ready to activate. However, after a successful activation, your users suddenly get this message popping up:

“Unable to register with Relay Server”

What happened?

Groove is returning this error message because it is reaching a Relay server which has the option Authenticate Groove users enabled, but the account has not been registered on the Relay. This option is commonly called pre-authentication because when it is set, the Management Server needs to register users with the Relay Server before users can use that Relay Server. The procedure goes like this:

User added to Management Server
User registered with Relay by Manager
User activates account
User's account connects to Relay Server
Relay Server validates the account’s registration

In Connection Manager on a user's computer, click Advanced Network Settings, click Network Diagnostics, click to expand Home Relay Devices, and then click to expand the device URL. You will see this line:

Status: Disconnected,Created Connect,Received Secured ConnectResponse,Connected,Sent ConnectAuthenticate,Sent Attach,Received AttachResponse,Created AttachAuthenticate,Sent AttachAuthenticate,Sent Register

If pre-authentication was properly implemented, you would see one more entry: Received RegisterResponse. Because we see Sent Register but not Received RegisterResponse, we know that pre-authentication is enabled, but the user's account is not registered with the Relay. Because of this, the Relay will not provide services to the account.

There are two different issues that cause this problem.

Communications issues

The Manager may be unable to contact the Relay correctly. Try opening a telnet connection from Manager to Relay over port 8009. If that fails, but you can ping the Relay from the Manager, the port may be blocked on your Relay server. In Windows Server 2008, all ports are blocked by default in Windows Firewall, so problems here are especially likely. If the issue is not port access, look for other communications blocks between the two servers. Once you can telnet to from the Manager to port 8009 on the Relay, restart both servers. Take a look at the Audit log on Manager Server. Do you see user adds in the log? If so, success! If not, time to look for another solution.

Auditing services problem

The other common cause of this problem is a faulty installation of Manager. Even if you go through each step of the installation carefully, there is one old issue that can trip you up. In the unpatched Office Groove Server Manager release, you could not run Manager and Audit services on the same computer. If you added Auditing Services during installation, but did not slipstream Office Server Service Pack 1 (SP) or 2 into the Manager Server updates folder prior to installing Manager, you will not be able to register users with the Relay Server. (You will also be unable to synchronize a directory integration point to share user information with Active Directory.) To test for this issue, run the following query on your SQL server:

select EnableDirectorySynchronization, EnableRelayServerSynchronization from gmsservers

If you installed without SP2 updates, this query will return 0. Unfortunately, resolving this problem requires uninstalling and reinstalling the Manager. This is time-consuming, but will only become more of a chore if you use the server first and then return to this solution.

Is there an alternative? Sort of. As a workaround, you can disable the option Authenticate Groove users on the Relay. (See http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc261658.aspx for instructions.) We don't usually recommend this approach, as it has two major problems:

Security and Performance risk: If you turn off pre-authentication, and someone gets a hold of your ServerID.xml file from the Relay Server, they could, hypothetically, use that file on their Manager Server and then use your Relay Server as their Relay. They would not have any access to any data on your Relay, or your Manager for that matter. But they could launch a Denial-of-Service attack by deluging the Relay with data.
Functionality loss: You will be unable to synchronize users with Active Directory.

For a more complete resolution, uninstall and reinstall Management server. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

After you uninstall Groove Management Server, you also need to remove the registry key HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Groove\Audit Server
You will need to remove all GMS and Audit databases from SQL
You must slipstream Office Server Service Pack 2 into the GMS updates folder before reinstalling. For directions, go here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc178995.aspx#DeployInitialUpdViaUpdatesFolder

Now you are ready to reinstall GMS. However, take a moment to think about Auditing services. Do you really want Auditing services running on the same computer as your production Manager server? More often than not, the answer to that question is “no”. The Groove Audit Server was meant to run on a separate server and can take up quite a lot of system resources. So even though you can (with slipstreamed SP2) run Audit Services with Manager, it does not mean you should. For more details, see the documentation at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262178.aspx.

When you have made your decision, reinstall the servers and recreate your domain members.

“So I ran grooveclean, but that didn’t fix the problem…”

Frances Se - MSFT — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:20:00 GMT

by Gregg Johnston

“So I ran grooveclean, but that didn’t fix the problem…”

Software doesn't always work the way we want it to work. When things go wrong, we often fall back on what have learned about the software in order to diagnose the problem and try to fix it. Sometimes we just do things because they are “something to do” as opposed to something that can actually fix the problem. Such is the case with the applet in Groove called grooveclean.

Many times on the forums, we read about a user having a problem, and one of the things they will state is “I ran grooveclean, but that didn’t fix the problem...” Most of the time, running grooveclean will not fix the problem. Sometimes, running grooveclean might fix the problem. It all depends on where the problem is located, what the problem is, and what has been done thus far to fix it.

So what exactly is grooveclean? Take a look at this knowledgbase article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/907854

What grooveclean does is remove all the buffer files that are set to transmit and to receive. It also removes diagnostic information.

That’s it.

It is not a panacea for all Groove problems. In fact, running grooveclean has the potential to cause data loss. Say you have an Instant Message that is in the “Waiting to send” stage. Shutting down Groove and then running grooveclean will delete that message unsent. So when is a useful time to run grooveclean? Let's say that you added a large amount of data to a Groove space and then immediately deleted that data before anyone received it. As a result of this, Groove has a large outgoing buffer with a delete command that is following the data. Running grooveclean will clear out that buffer. Grooveclean will also help if there is corruption in a buffer. Anything having to do with communications being stuck and not progressing might be a good time for grooveclean. However, running grooveclean can also make data backlogs worse, because Groove will attempt to retransmit data that has not synchronized correctly. So if you added data and then deleted it from the workspace after a member received it, running grooveclean will not help. To keep everyone in the same state, Groove will retransmit the data added and the delete operation until everyone in the workspace has received them, and if you clear the buffer, it will need to regenerate that buffer and start the transmission again from the beginning. Bottom line: use grooveclean with caution and only use it if you have attempted other troubleshooting steps.

It is best practice to start troubleshooting communications issues from other angles before running grooveclean. Determine if this is a problem with Groove, or a problem with your network. Focus on what is currently happening with your communications by going to Communications Manager (Options > Communications Manager). Is there one space with a lot of activity? Best to let that activity complete and then reevaluate. Is there no space activity? That could indicate a communications problem, and grooveclean probably will not fix it.

One thing grooveclean will never fix is an error message on start up or some sort of system error message. Another thing grooveclean will never fix is the small amount of data that is in your communications tray. See this technote for that:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/916384 - yes, grooveclean is a part of the process, but it is not the process.

Also, a quick word about grooveclean with the –all option: running grooveclean –all will remove all Groove account and workspace data from the computer. So it is important to consider everything that is associated with that action before running it. Do you have your account backed up? Are you willing to start over with a new account if you do not have it backed up? Are you willing to lose your Instant Message history? Are there other Groove accounts on the computer that you do not want to lose? Remember, even if you have your account saved to a file, you do not have all of your workspaces and workspace data saved. Keeping these things in mind, know that once grooveclean –all runs, there is no return.

(For information on backing up account and workspace data, see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/907230.)

So grooveclean is a handy tool if you are stuck in a communications jam. But it is not the cure-all for all problems in Groove. It is meant to be used in a limited way for a limited set of circumstances.

(Today's article is from contributer Gregg Johnston.)

Synchronizing files in Groove – to GFS or not to GFS

Frances Se - MSFT — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 14:52:00 GMT

...that is the question

Many users have started to use Groove because of the handy way it takes a folder in your directory and shares that folder as a Groove space – synchronizing files between workspace members and computers. Many users have also gotten themselves into trouble using Groove File Sharing (GFS) workspaces by turning their My Pictures folder and My Music folder into GFS workspaces, breaking the hard limits Groove sets for workspace size and number of files number and causing all kinds of performance and application problems. When is the best time to use a GFS workspace? What are some alternatives to GFS? What should you do when you start seeing oddities in GFS workspaces?

GFS workspaces are quite handy. By clicking New Workspace and selecting Groove File Sharing workspace, you can turn your directory into a Groove workspace that sits outside of the application. You can then invite colleagues to the workspace and they will share your data. You can also have chats within these workspaces, and see the online status of members of the workspace. Other workspace members can choose where to put their local copy of the workspace once they have received an invitation. They can decide to place it on their desktop, sync with another folder, or choose a location that better suites them. (I personally place the workspaces under My Documents.)

These workspaces are also not encrypted. They are, security-wise, treated as any other Windows folder. Therefore, if something catastrophic happens to Groove, the folders can still be accessed through normal means. If something catastrophic happens to the computer, the folders can potentially be accessed through a backup of some sort (obviously this depends on the backup applications involved), or retrieved from another workspace member.

The down side to this is that the GFS workspaces can also be accessed like any other folder in your directory. Whether it be an intrusion via hack or virus, GFS workspaces are exposed like any other Windows folder– with the potential for the effects of such exposure being synchronized to all workspace members. However, data in GFS workspaces is transferred in an encrypted state. When a change is made to a file, that change is sent to the Groove application, is serialized for transport, sent out encrypted via Groove to the Relay, transferred from Relay to the receiving Groove client encrypted, decrypted by receiving Groove client, and sent to appropriate file / folder.

So while GFS workspaces are handy, they do have some risk involved. An alternative to GFS is a Standard Groove Workspace with a Files tool. In these workspaces, a Groove Files tool handles all documents and other files. It has the look and feel of a Windows folder as well as the capability to drag and drop files to, from, and within the workspace. The data is encrypted, so it is resistant to outside attack from hacker (unless they have your Groove password) or viral corruption. Data does not have to be encrypted and unencrypted to synchronize, so there are also performance advantages. Rules on the number of files, the size of the workspace, and types of files still apply, as they do in GFS. However, there is no limit to the number of Standard workspaces you can have in a Groove account, unlike GFS, where the hard limit is 64. The down side is that all the data is encrypted in the Groove application. If a catastrophic event happens, the Groove account is unavailable, and there is no other workspace member or computer that has the data, then the data is irretrievable.

Two other alternatives to GFS workspaces are Live Mesh– currently in Beta – and Office Live Spaces.

So if you decide to use GFS workspaces, what should you do if things start to go wrong? The first thing you should do is to look at the number of files in the workspace. While there is a hard limit of 5000 files per GFS workspace, the more files you have in the workspace, the more synchronization that needs to happen. Related to that is the size of the workspace. 2 GB is the hard limit. However, once you get to 1 GB, you should start thinking about removing files or splitting the workspace into smaller workspaces. Most problems with GFS workspaces are rectified by eliminating data or starting over with new – smaller -- workspaces. Also you will want to consider other items such as system resources (disk space, memory) and bandwidth (high speed or dial-up?) when troubleshooting GFS issues.

GFS workspaces are handy, and when used appropriately, can be useful. However you will want to consider carefully what the future of a GFS workspace looks like. If the workspace has the potential for large growth, consider if a GFS workspace is the right method for sharing this data. Think about the alternatives and what benefits they might have over a GFS workspace. If you are doing a smaller collaboration and need a way to share a limited amount of files, then the GFS workspace might just be the tool to use!

(Today's article is from guest contributer Gregg Johnston. For more information on GFS issues, check articles with the GFS tag.)

Upcoming changes for Groove 3.1

Frances Se - MSFT — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 18:30:00 GMT

I expect many of you have been hearing the buzz about Microsoft Office 2010. I'll be talking more about the features and changes in that product as we get closer to the release. However, for those of you still using Groove Virtual Office 3.1 or the Groove 3.1 servers, the 2010 release has other implications, as it marks the end of most assisted support for Groove Networks 3.1 products. Since you will not be able to upgrade directly from Groove Virtual Office 3.1 to Office SharePoint Workspace 2010 (the Groove successor product), you may want to start planning for this release now. We've posted an article that provides guidance on the support and maintenance changes for the Groove 3.1 products and the upgrade and migration paths that will be available. For details, please take a look at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/974478.

Groove name change

Frances Se - MSFT — Tue, 19 May 2009 18:00:00 GMT

By now, I expect that most of you have seen an announcement that that in Office 2010, Groove will become Sharepoint Workspace. Jim McCoy has more information about the reasoning behind that name change here: http://blogs.msdn.com/groove_development_team...(read more)

Summary of Office 2007 Service Pack 2 changes for Groove

Frances Se - MSFT — Fri, 08 May 2009 19:33:00 GMT

Hi all! You may have noticed that it's been pretty quiet here lately. That's because we've been busy preparing for the recent releases of Microsoft Office 2007 SP2 and Microsoft Office servers 2007 SP2 . These service packs fix the following problems...(read more)

Groove 3.1 Licensing maintenance issues

Frances Se - MSFT — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 19:46:00 GMT

Do you run Groove Virtual Office 3.1, or use the old 3.1 Groove Hosted Services? At this point, we believe most people who were using Groove Virtual Office 3.1 -- the last version of the Groove desktop application produced by Groove Networks -- have transitioned...(read more)

Discuss: Relative file transfer speeds of File Sharing and Standard workspaces

Frances Se - MSFT — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 20:09:00 GMT

In a comment here , Camineet poses a question about relative file transfer speeds of File Sharing and Standard workspaces. Since this varies by environment, I wanted to open it up for others to contribute. Do you have data to share?...(read more)

Groove hangs at launch

Frances Se - MSFT — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 20:22:00 GMT

We have seen an increase in cases of Groove hanging at launch, either before displaying the login window, or soon after displaying the Launchbar. There are several conditions that cause this, and thus several things that fix it. If you are having this...(read more)

Rearranging a Groove-synchronized Windows folder

Frances Se - MSFT — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 00:34:00 GMT

When you use a folder in your daily work, you naturally find yourselves moving things around. For example, shortly after I started blogging, I realized that my work documents folder had become cluttered with half-written article ideas, so I changed the...(read more)

Welcoming another Groove blog...

Frances Se - MSFT — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 22:03:00 GMT

Jim McCoy revived the Groove Development team blog a few months ago. We cross-linked our blogs at the time, but since custom links are so far down the sidebar, I'm not sure they get noticed. Check out his blog for tips and tidbits on what you can do with...(read more)

Problems with "Discard Groove messages from unknown contacts"

Frances Se - MSFT — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 23:10:00 GMT

Under the Options tab of Groove Preferences, there is an innocuous looking option, Discard Groove messages from unknown contacts . While this option is useful in some situations, it is important to understand the problems that may result from using it...(read more)

When Groove Administrator email doesn't reach the user

Frances Se - MSFT — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 21:55:00 GMT

Here's a scenario for anyone who administers a Groove domain from Groove Enterprise Services or Groove Hosted Services (i.e., from a Microsoft-hosted server). Let's say that one of your users lost their account and needs their account backup. No problem...(read more)

A summary of Groove workspace synchronization

Frances Se - MSFT — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 21:08:00 GMT

Since Groove is all about synchronization, it should come as no surprise that a lot of our support issues fall into that category. Here's a brief summary of factors to consider when data is not synchronizing from one workspace endpoint to another, or...(read more)

Adding a Sharepoint Files tool to a Groove workspace

Frances Se - MSFT — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 00:16:00 GMT

Someone on the Groove newsgroup recently noted that the instructions for “Setting up a SharePoint Document Library connection” in the Groove Help only apply to Windows XP. After confirming this was true, I checked the Groove 2007 Help and How-to Home...(read more)

Understanding and troubleshooting the SharePoint Files tool in Groove 2007

Frances Se - MSFT — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 23:17:00 GMT

So, I'll confess -- SharePoint is not one of my specialties, especially in the current version of Groove. Recently, on one of the Groove newsgroups, someone was reporting that most of the documents in one of his libraries were not synchronizing down to...(read more)

Groove Manager best practices – protect your data

Frances Se - MSFT — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 21:43:00 GMT

Hardware failure is one of those risks you can never quite eliminate. So what do you do to protect your Groove domain data? The Groove Manager (or Management Server, for those of you still running 3.1) provides an administrative web interface on an...(read more)

The size of Groove workspaces

Frances Se - MSFT — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 20:54:00 GMT

Lately, I've seen a number of questions about the size of Groove workspaces. I mentioned a couple of size limitations in my recent article on GFS workspaces, as well. This article will discuss what determines the size of a Groove workspace, and best practice...(read more)